1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to electronic systems having flat planel displays and more particularly to a flat panel display that employs a full range of attributes.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the past, attributes for liquid crystal displays have been formed by recreating a character set for each attribute or combination of attributes desired. These are not truly attributes, but rather character sets that emulate the attributes for character presentations. This arrangement of displaying character attributes is expensive for each character in terms of hardware, specifically storage.
Another prior art method is to employ a very fast processor for real time storing of a modified character font into a character generator. However, this system is expensive since the processor, memory speed, and support logic must be very fast to store characters, modify characters, and display characters as fast as the communication link is providing presentation protocol commands. Further, since size and power is of consideration, the power required for such a system is not readily available.
This invention allows the user of a small terminal having an LCD display to employ host protocols defining the display attributes and having the same visual presentation of the characters affected in the same manner as a desk top cathode ray tube (CRT) terminal. The invention eliminates this major drawback to the use of the flat panel technology for computers and terminals.